Montauk Fishing Report: Striped Bass, Sharks, Tuna, Fluke
(Sent by Capt. Gene Kelly of Montauk Sportfishing - Striped Bass, Fluke, Sharks, Tuna)
We had quite a variety of weather this past week. First was a couple of days of Global Warming, followed by a wannabe hurricane that passed offshore Thursday evening, which resulted in a real lousy forecast for Friday, which caused a lot of trips to be canceled. Of course the Friday weather was great. Then over the weekend there was a little southerly, making offshore fishing pretty exciting, especially on Sunday.
As far as the fishing is concerned I can almost just paste in last weeks report.
The bass fishing is pretty good, but there are a lot of shorts being caught, too many. There are also some nicer fish, mostly being caught on porgies. But using the porgies doesn’t give a lot of action since the baits are too big for the majority of fish that are here now.
The fluke fishing is unchanged, with a lot of shorts and occasional three to four pound fish. Some doggies are still around, but becoming less of a problem. The biggest news on the fluke front is that it looks like the regs will be tightened up even further next year. They are looking at reducing the overall fluke quota by 40% or more.
Shark fishing is sort of what we call “one bite” fishing. There are few bluesharks, so there is not a lot of action. But when that one bite comes it is likely to be either a mako or thresher. And, if you get that one bite, you are likely to get another.
I haven’t heard much about the tuna this week.
If you would like to have these reports sent to you directly, just drop me a note at captgene@montauksportfishing.com.
7/17/06
It’s hard to give a report this week, because in almost every case the state of the fishing depends on who I speak to. One guy does great, and the next does lousy.
The bass fishing is OK I guess, but you can’t expect a charter with six anglers to catch their limit on a half day trip. There are a lot of shorts around, and some decent fish. A lot of the trollers are using the big tubes to target bigger fish and avoid smaller ones, and if they pass over the right fish it works out. If not, it doesn’t. Live porgies are working too, but again if you don’t drift over the fish, you don’t catch. Also, porgies can be a little difficult to come by.
The fluke situation is somewhat the same. Some guys do good with some real nice fish, while others struggle and catch lots and lots of shorts. One good thing is that the doggies seem to be getting scarcer, but not completely gone yet.
For the most part shark fishing is what we call “one bite” fishing, although there are exceptions to that as well. The water has gotten a little too toasty for the blue sharks, so you can’t expect to catch a lot of sharks. However what you are likely to catch are makos or threshers. A good thing about shark fishing is that you don’t have to run very far. Much more than fifteen to eighteen miles and you are just wasting fuel, and we all know how expensive that can be.
The school bluefins are still around, although catching one is not a sure thing. Then again, you could also catch a dozen or so, although probably not be able to keep any. There is no hot spot as far as I know, and you can start fishing at the 800 line. A number of shark boats have caught them on the way to their shark spot, which as I said above is not very far out.
I haven’t heard of any boats fishing out at the 500 line yet, but I suspect someone will be going out there this week. The edge is producing a mixture of yellowfins, longfins and mahi, but it seems that the boats making that run haven’t bothered to fish much inside of the drop-off.
We had quite a variety of weather this past week. First was a couple of days of Global Warming, followed by a wannabe hurricane that passed offshore Thursday evening, which resulted in a real lousy forecast for Friday, which caused a lot of trips to be canceled. Of course the Friday weather was great. Then over the weekend there was a little southerly, making offshore fishing pretty exciting, especially on Sunday.
As far as the fishing is concerned I can almost just paste in last weeks report.
The bass fishing is pretty good, but there are a lot of shorts being caught, too many. There are also some nicer fish, mostly being caught on porgies. But using the porgies doesn’t give a lot of action since the baits are too big for the majority of fish that are here now.
The fluke fishing is unchanged, with a lot of shorts and occasional three to four pound fish. Some doggies are still around, but becoming less of a problem. The biggest news on the fluke front is that it looks like the regs will be tightened up even further next year. They are looking at reducing the overall fluke quota by 40% or more.
Shark fishing is sort of what we call “one bite” fishing. There are few bluesharks, so there is not a lot of action. But when that one bite comes it is likely to be either a mako or thresher. And, if you get that one bite, you are likely to get another.
I haven’t heard much about the tuna this week.
If you would like to have these reports sent to you directly, just drop me a note at captgene@montauksportfishing.com.
7/17/06
It’s hard to give a report this week, because in almost every case the state of the fishing depends on who I speak to. One guy does great, and the next does lousy.
The bass fishing is OK I guess, but you can’t expect a charter with six anglers to catch their limit on a half day trip. There are a lot of shorts around, and some decent fish. A lot of the trollers are using the big tubes to target bigger fish and avoid smaller ones, and if they pass over the right fish it works out. If not, it doesn’t. Live porgies are working too, but again if you don’t drift over the fish, you don’t catch. Also, porgies can be a little difficult to come by.
The fluke situation is somewhat the same. Some guys do good with some real nice fish, while others struggle and catch lots and lots of shorts. One good thing is that the doggies seem to be getting scarcer, but not completely gone yet.
For the most part shark fishing is what we call “one bite” fishing, although there are exceptions to that as well. The water has gotten a little too toasty for the blue sharks, so you can’t expect to catch a lot of sharks. However what you are likely to catch are makos or threshers. A good thing about shark fishing is that you don’t have to run very far. Much more than fifteen to eighteen miles and you are just wasting fuel, and we all know how expensive that can be.
The school bluefins are still around, although catching one is not a sure thing. Then again, you could also catch a dozen or so, although probably not be able to keep any. There is no hot spot as far as I know, and you can start fishing at the 800 line. A number of shark boats have caught them on the way to their shark spot, which as I said above is not very far out.
I haven’t heard of any boats fishing out at the 500 line yet, but I suspect someone will be going out there this week. The edge is producing a mixture of yellowfins, longfins and mahi, but it seems that the boats making that run haven’t bothered to fish much inside of the drop-off.
